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Page 270
Chapter Fourteen
It was a marvelous ceremony, marred only for Alinor, who had to struggle frantically to control her tears when adam took the vows of his men. He was so very small, his tiny hands engulfed in the large ones of the men who knelt to him. A pain stabbed from Alinor's throat down into her breast until she felt literally that her heart would break. Simon, her painful heart wailed, Simon. But there was no answer, not even the vision of him that, in the past, used to rise in her mind's eye to calm her when she was frightened or sad. There was only Ian's voice, following Adam's treble affirmation of the vows of fealty, Ian's voice, sure and strong, repeating again and again, "I, Ian, Lord de Vipont, do warrant and stand surety for my son by marriage."
Fortunately, Alinor had taken the fealty of her dependents so often that the words and gestures flowed from her without need for thought, and however forgetful Ian had been in the matter of his squires' dress, he had obviously not failed to instruct them in their duties. As each vassal or castellan swore, Owain or Geoffrey, by turns, came forward to receive and carry to safety the token of homage. Sir John of Mersea's offering of five fish, three eels, and two oysters; Sir Giles of Iford's two couple of hunting dogs; Sir Henry of Kingsclere's tall lance; and Sir Walter of the Forstal's sparrow hawk had been accepted before Alinor really was conscious of anything beside her own misery. She had not even heard the roars of "Fiat! Fiat!" that shook the rafters after each swearing.
She came to herself swiftly enough, however, when

 
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